"What is happening to him?"
Obi-Wan was now in a fetal position in the corner of the room, his body writhing and twitching, his face contorted in pain.
Padméwatched in horror as a gash suddenly appeared across Obi-Wan's chest, bright red blood oozing from the open wound. And then a rapidlydarkening bruise appeared under his left eye.
Mace disengaged his lightsaber, clipped it back to his belt and immediately assumed a meditative posture. This battle could not be fought with the power of his lightsaber skills, but only with the power of the Force. Glancing at Padmé, he decided he was going to need all the help he could get.
He held his hand out to her, and she hesitated briefly before accepting it.
Padmé gasped quietly as she could feel her mind being gently intruded upon. The very powerful and strong presence of Mace Windu was somehow within her, pulling her mental self outside of her body. It was not painful or uncomfortable, but very surreal.
Mace had wondered before about the senator's sense of the Force. He had had his suspicions that she held some power, although very little. No matter. What little she had, he needed to borrow. He just hoped that the strength she possessed outside of the Force was enough to endure the battle they were about to fight.
Padmé glanced at Mace, whose eyes were closed tightly, his brows furrowed, his facial muscles straining. She did not know how to help him other than opening her mind to what he needed and concentrating on her love for the man who writhed in pain in the corner of the room.
The shuddering jar that rippled through the Jedi reflected in her own mind and she was started as she began to see the obstacle that lay before them. It frightened her.
Layers of inky black shadows, suffocating and strangling Obi-Wan. Long black menacing claws reaching out and striking him, causing the wounds that were a physical manifestation of their power.
Mace was using the Force as a torch to burn their way through them. Some of the shadows were mere wisps that dissipated with touch, but others, especially the claw-like hands were thick and resistant.
Padmé watched Windu's face as they met that resistance. Beads of sweat popped out along his brow, his face grimaced in concentration. The breath that he had been holding came out in gasps. Padmé began to worry that he was about to give up when a sudden bright shaft of light pierced through the darkness, illuminating the shadows and strengthening their own weakening power. She wasn't sure how she knew, but somehow she did. Master Yoda had just joined them.
Through their combined efforts, the shadows began to dissipate more rapidly, stripping the blackness away from the bright soul that lay smothered beneath.
Padmé gasped as the room was abruptly illuminated with a blue glow. She could just make out the ghostly figure of Qui-Gon Jinn standing next to Obi-Wan.
"It's Master Qui-Gon." She gasped aloud in shock.
Mace opened his weary eyes. "No it isn't, but Obi-Wan is meant to think it is."
Obi-Wan was now screaming while writhing on the floor, spewing out obscenities aimed at his former Master, every muscle in his body tense, veins straining along his neck and face, his body now displaying several oozing wounds.
Mace could feel Obi-Wan fighting for control, fighting for his very life while pushing away the dark abyss threatening to consume his anguished and tortured mind.
The ghostly figure contorted with the combined Force effort intent on banishing it, and it quickly turned against Mace.
The image of Qui-Gon dissolved and revealed a creased and whithered white face of an elderly man he did not recognize, yellow eyes set deep in its ugly face. At last, the Master was revealed.
The feral grin contorted into a hideous snarl at the bombarbment of light before turning to focus its evil intentions on the weakest power in the room.
Padmé seized as the Dark Force slammed into her mind. The pain was unbearable and she screamed out in terror and collapsed face first onto the floor.
Another scream echoed from across the room -- this one coming from Kenobi.
"Noooo!"
Mace was quickly joined in meditation by Obi-Wan. Although quite weak, his Force powers were stronger than Padmé's, and along with Yoda, the three of them cast the snarling and hissing apparition of the Sith Master from the room. It exploded in a burst of shadow, a shrill scream reverberating against the walls of the chamber.
Other than the hum of the engines, the ship was now eerily quiet.
Mace rolled Padmé over and placed a thumb and forefinger to her temples, checking for for any sign of mental damage. He heaved a sigh of relief.
"Is she...?" Obi-Wan had crawled over to her side, his voice quite hoarse.
"She lives. And how are you Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Mace turned to the nude and bleeding young man.
Obi-Wan's face grew pensive, searching inward for something that was apparently no longer there. "Fine." Was his simple reply.
Mace raised one eyebrow. He still had his doubts, but to his surprise, he could no longer feel the dark power that had previously inhabited him.
However, Kenobi's Force signature was changed. No longer the white light it had once been, it was now various shades of gray.
Mace slowly picked himself up from the floor, shocked at his state of mental and physical exhaustion.
Before leaving the room, he reached down and draped his own dark brown Jedi cloak around the naked form of Obi-Wan, who had not moved from Padmé's unconscious side.
He stopped at the door and lifted his hand to activate the force field, but before reaching it, changed his mind and dropped his hand back down to his side.
"We will be arriving in Coruscant in four hours. You will be confined to quarters."
"Yes Master." Came the hoarse but cultured reply.
One step forward and he once more stopped and without turning around quietly said, "It is good to have you back Obi-Wan."